Early the next morning, with the sun’s light just breaking across the horizon through the perpetual cloud cover, Nahlah comes bursting through the door of the salvage shop onto the roof. She bounds around, looking at the sky wagon, then stoops down low to look at Gearing as he’s still tinkering on the undercarriage.

She waves at him with one paw and grins excitedly. “Gearing! Gearing! Holy crap! You gotta hear about this!”

“Yeah?” Gearing grumbles as he’s fighting with a piece. Gearing grunts then huffs as he crams the part into position, causing the entire skywagon to rock for a moment from the impact. “What’s got you so happy?”

Nahlah grins and rapidly taps her forepaws back and forth as she blurts out, “The whole town’s talking about it! Fixer really was here last night!” She turns her head and waves off towards the town’s front gate. “Apparently there was a raider attack, and he not only saved Pile Driver,” she brings her head back to look at him and raises an eyebrow as she asks, “You remember Pile Driver? That big hunky brown buck guardspony from yesterday?” Gearing stares at her for a moment from under the wagon then gives a slow nod, so she continues, “Well he got shot in the neck! And the other guards got pinned down. But apparently Fixer just rushed in, threw the two guards into town behind the cover of the wall, and then chased the raiders off!” She hops up and starts shadow boxing the air in front of herself. “But he didn’t just let them run! He tracked them down and was like pow, bam, pop!” She hops back and forth between her hind legs as she grins and pumps her forepaws in the air in excitement. “And he beat the ever living shit out of them!” She squats down to look at him as she grins. “Beat them into pony jelly and fed them to the radroaches!”

“Fed them to the radroaches, huh?” Gearing asks as he’s moving a cable restraint into place. “How’d they figure that out? One get away?”

She rapidly shakes her head and waves the idea off with a practical spit take. “Pffft…. Like he’d do something that stupid…” She wiggles her haunches back and forth as she rocks side to side. “A caravanner passed through the area, and found the massacre. And it was a massacre. They were worried some cannibal raiders had done it, and reported it to the town guards, but there was enough of one of their cutie marks to identify them as one of the raiders that had attacked the town before.” She shrugs. “And the rest just kind of fell into place.”

“And he, or she, or whatever, fed them to radroaches…?” Gearing asks without even looking.

Nahlah’s grin fades a bit as she tilts her head and thinks about it. She taps on her muzzle with a paw for a moment before she shrugs. “Well… maybe not… But the radroaches were busy cleaning up the mess when the caravanner came through.”

“Ah,” Gearing says disinterestedly. “Makes more sense that way. Don’t know why anypony would want to travel around carrying those gods awful things.”

“Awwww don’t worry… I’ll protect you from the mean ole lil bugs,” Nahlah teases with a twinkle in her eye.

Gearing rolls his eyes and scoots over more to the side to shove a few more pieces into their respective harnesses and restraints as he mutters, “Yeah. Gee. Thanks.”

Nahlah giggles and swishes her tail. “Although… I gotta say… looks like you’ve pretty much got it back together… So in terms of which is more amazing… you or Fixer…” She lifts her forepaws, pads up, as she starts raising and lowering them alternatively as she weighs the decision. “That’s pretty damn close, Gearing.” She grins at him wide enough that her eyes practically close. “But… if you actually got it running in a single night… yeah… you’d have won… Sorry, pal.”

“Oh, really?” Gearing asks as he climbs out from under the skywagon.

Nahlah sits up and gives a prim nod. “Absolutely.”

Gearing slides around to the harness, that’s been modified with a quick release, and clips himself in. He stares at Nahlah with a frown for a moment before kicking with his back leg, and activating the skywagon. He starts hovering, taking the wagon with himself, as he asks, “You were saying?”

Nahlah’s eyes jump to their widest as her jaw drops. She throws both forepaws out at the skywagon as she asks in disbelief, “You’re kidding!? You just got it done?!”

Gearing rolls his eyes. “I got it running a while ago, just adding a few extra bits now.”

“No way!’ Nahlah replies as she jumps over and starts walking under the wagon, looking for something else holding it up. She pauses and raises an eyebrow as she says with a tone of accusation, “Waaaait a minuuuuute… There’s wires hanging down here still!”

Gearing nickers then says flatly, “It’s functional… I’m just replacing the cable restraints and adding a few modifications so they don’t cause a short again.”

“Uh huh…” Nahlah says as she walks back out from under the skywagon and Gearing comes back down, putting it back onto its makeshift raised platform before turning it off. She looks him in the eye for a moment then puts a paw to her muzzle as she giggles. “Soooomeponiiiieees jealooooous.” Gearing narrows his eyes at her and she puts both paws on her abdomen as she giggles. “That’s amazing! Don’t worry.” She waves at him dismissively. “This is sufficiently impressive for you to get the point for last night…” She grins widely and points at him. “But Fixer’s still in the lead!” She giggles, turns around, and starts leaving as she says over her shoulder, “I’m going to go let Swift and them know you actually did it! We can take off today!”

Gearing waves it away with a hoof as he pops out of the harness and slides back under the skywagon to resume snapping the last few cables and restrains into place.

Sable drops her head down to look at him under the wagon. She looks at the door to the lower level and smirks as she brings her gaze back to Gearing’s. “I’m gonna tell her…”

Gearing grins at her and shakes his head. “Don’t you dare, it’s funnier this way.”

“But if she thinks each individual act is sufficiently impressive, imagine the look on her face when she finds out you did both in one night,” she says with a grin.

Gearing reaches out with a wing, and slaps her on her flank. “It’s no surprise to you, because you know about my endurance… But it’s going to be hilarious when she finds out.” He grins widely. “Might even break her brain!”

She stoops down and gets closer to his face as he maneuvers around to poke his head out near her. “You have a strange sense of humor sometimes, my darling Gearing…”

Gearing stretches his neck up and gives her a soft kiss before he gives her a wink. “Yeah, but you love me anyway…”

She partially narrows her eyes and says softly, “Mmmhmm,” before digging into the kiss more and more. She brings out a pair of restraining cables and holds his muzzle just right so she can tilt her own for the perfect tongue dueling angle.

A loud metallic pop causes her eyes to open wide. She zips her eyes around, then notices, and feels, the smile on his muzzle. “My love… are you really working on the skywagon while kissing me?” she murmurs with her lips still exploring his.

Another loud pop answers before Gearing can.

He simply grins and wiggles his eyebrows. “Maybe…”

She pulls back a bit and purses her lips to the side as she asks, “How long until you’re done?”

Gearing rolls his eyes around as he thinks it over for a moment and continues to move his hooves and wings under the skywagon. “About one more…”

“One more cable harness support?” Sable asks with a tilt of her head.

Gearing shakes his head and grins. “Nah… One more… kiss.” He narrows his eyes and leans up, which she kindly obliges to. She ignores the metallic pop that rings out a moment after beginning kissing.

And does the same for the next pop that rattles the wagon a few moments later.

But the third, and apparently final, metallic pop causes them both to stop. And snicker. Then devolve into a pair of giggling idiots there by the wagon.

She gently runs a hoof along his jaw as he’s climbing out from under the skywagon, and says with a smirk, “You are a crazy one, my darling Gearing.”

Gearing leans towards her, resting his forehead against hers and looking into her eyes as he grins. “I’m crazy, but I’m not stupid.”

“Of course not.” She leans around and kisses him on the cheek. “My darling Gearing makes many good decisions.”

Gearing smirks and looks at her sideways. “And… you’re one of them?”

She grins widely at him and shimmies her shoulders. “Well, if you insist…” She looks over at the wagon for a moment before asking softly and looking at him sideways with her head tilted, “Take a mare for a ride?”

Gearing shakes his head and chuckles. “If you mean a flight, sure. Hop in.” He gives her a wink and waves with a wing dismissively. “We don’t have time for any other kind of ‘riding’ right now, sorry.”

She’d started to climb into the back of the skywagon, then stops and stares at him a moment as she purses her lips to the side. “My darling Gearing is teasing me again, is he not?”

He looks around side to side in an intentionally shifty manner as he grins. “Maaaaybe.” Then chuckles and hops over to click into the harness as she shakes her head and giggles as she climbs in the rest of the way. He looks over his shoulder at her and asks, “Ready, Sable?”

Sable grins and zips a restraining cable out, and snaps it against his flank. “Yup! Giddyup!”

He snaps to attention then yells as he starts lifting off, “Hey! I will not be objectified in this manner! There’s a brain attached to these wings!”

“Well, then, in what manner would you like to be objectified?,” Sable’s voice replies with a giggle.

Gearing slowly turns his head until he locks eyes with Sable, who’s still in the middle of a giggle fit from feeling clever. “I’m gonna have to have a talk with Nahlah about what she’s been teaching you…”

“Whatever do you mean, my Gearing?” Sable asks with a grin.

“Mmmhmm,” Gearing replies, then gets a mischievous grin across his muzzle. “You’re in my space now… Hold onto your butt, I’m going to put the wagon through its paces.” She nods and he looks forward after seeing her cables come out and start grabbing hold of the skywagon’s frame. His eyes go wide, and his ears start whistling, as he yells out, “I said your butt, not mine!”

“But, you are my Gearing… so it is my Gearing’s butt… it needs to be held as well.”

He rolls his eyes then scowls as he pulls back a bit in preparation for a sudden quick take off. “Oooohhh you’re gonna get it later.”

“Promises, promisAAAGGGGGHHHSSS,” she screams as he takes off with enough of a sudden jerk that she actually slides back a bit in the wagon.

Gearing zips up with the skywagon, then comes down towards the town in an ever tightening circle after beginning by buzzing the walls around it. He zips down, and flies over the ponies walking through the streets minding their own business, who look up and gawk at the irregular sight. A few even having to cover their eyes from the dust and wind that gets kicked up as he buzzes over them. He flies down the lanes, laughing, as he takes a few sudden sharp turns and manages a particularly tight turn.

“Gearing! Gearing!” Sable yells as all of her cables point out in every direction and hold onto the wagon tightly to try and stay in the same position. “Is this skywagon rated for such maneuvers?!”

Gearing laughs more and kicks with glee as he yells back, “Let’s find out!”

“Let’s not!” comes her quick reply.

Gearing rotates, taking the wagon sideways, before making a sharp turn around a corner down one of the narrower lanes. As he’s coming out the other side, into a wider lane, he yells out, “One more!” Then heads down the lane they’d come into. A few buildings later he sees another break in the buildings and turns into it.

However, this one wasn’t so much a lane as it’s a small ally or strip of open land with a building set farther back from the main road than the rest of them.

“Oh shit!” Gearing yells as his eyes bug out.

“Up front! Go up! Up! Up! UP!” Sable screams.

Gearing had little time to react, as the building was almost upon him once he’d made the turn. So Gearing did the only thing he could in the situation that didn’t involve him crashing into a steel building at full speed face first.

He went up. Straight up. At an angle so sharp it was practically attempting to loop back to where he was coming from. But, he’s hauling a skywagon, so that maneuver was impossible at the moment. He did, however, manage to get the wagon’s nose up enough, and yank upwards, to whip it around, then snapping forward to tilt the back of the wagon up and out of the way sufficiently to clear the top of the building. However the maneuver caused the back of the wagon to fishtail and buck in mid air. Rattling Sable around in the back as she stared wide eyed and held on in the wagon for dear life.

Gearing, figuring he’d had enough fun for the time being, zips over to the tournament crater, and lands right in the middle of it. As he’s walking around to the side, after disconnecting himself, he looks into the back of the wagon and asks, “You okay in there, Sable?”

Sable climbs up from the bottom, looking like she’d stuck her tongue in a light socket with her tail and mane frazzled out. She stares at him for a moment before she says, “This chassis was not designed for flight. I do not believe it would handle impacting the ground from such heights very well.” She stands up the rest of the way and grins as she shimmies her shoulders. “But I found the experience… exciting!” She waves with a forehoof. “I really enjoyed the view as well.”

Gearing nods as he looks around the area, and at a few of the townsponies that are looking at the pair. “Yeah, Equestria looks different from up there, doesn’t it?”

“Oh… That…” She shrugs. “I suppose that is true as well, my love.”

Nahlah comes running at a full pace down the lane, before bounding through the air, over the ring fence, and coming to a claw assisted sliding stop to, and by, Gearing. “Gearing! That was amazing! I know you said you got it to work, but seeing it hover and seeing you zip around like that were two different things!” She hops up onto her hind legs and bounces back and forth between them as she clasps her paws together in front of herself. “Come on, I want a ride! Take me up with you! I’ve never flown before! That looked fun!”

Sable looks at her then narrows her eyes as she looks at Gearing. “It may be necessary to put in some form of restraining equipment, if you are planning on pulling such maneuvers with less capable individuals.”

Swift and Handy walk up from the same direction Nahlah had ran from as they look at the skywagon over the crater’s railing. Swift waves a hoof at it and asks with disbelief in her voice, “What’d you do?! Stay up all night working on it?”

Handy puts his forehooves over the railing and looks it over as he shrugs. “Probably wasn’t as bad as we thought it was, if he got it done that quick.”

Swift rolls her eyes then shakes her head before looking at Gearing again. “You realize I was just teasing, right? I didn’t expect you to spend every second on it.”

Gearing sits down and shrugs. “Like you said, you’re on a time crunch, and I’d really like to get to Megamart as quick as possible.”

Swift taps on her muzzle for a moment as she thinks it over. “Well, if it’s fixed and ready to go, I’m pretty sure we can go at any time.”

Gearing motions towards her and smirks. “If you can secure a few more spark batteries, sure.” He gives her a wink and says in a teasing elongated tone, “Ms. Iroooon Hooooooof.”

Handy lets out a snort and looks around as he grumbles. “Yeah. Well. Let’s get out of here. The sooner the better I say.”

Swift snickers, then leans over and gives Handy a lick on his cheek, causing him to jump. “Go get Gauge, I’ll get the spark batteries, and we can get going in a few moments.”

Handy scowls for a moment, and then lets out a sigh and nods. “Yeah. Okay.” He turns and starts heading back the way they’d come as his head pivots side to side and takes in the environment while looking for their wayward companion.

Nahlah stretches up and puts her paws around her muzzle like a cone as she yells, “Just follow the smell! You can’t miss him!”

Swift snickers then gives a snort with her nose scrunched as she nods in agreement. She heads off towards a nearby building as she mutters, “Ain’t that the truth.” She calls out a bit louder, “I’ll be back, I’m going to go see about some spark batteries.”

Gearing uses the opportunity to fly back, solo and without the wagon, to the salvage store’s rooftop. Leaving Sable to watch over their transport, while Nahlah bounces around, and inside of, the wagon excitedly. It doesn’t take him long to fetch his various bags he’d left up on the roof. And by the time Gearing is stowing the last of his luggage in the back of the skywagon, Swift’s already walking up carrying a small cloth bag.

Swift sets the bag inside the wagon towards the front as she says, “This should be more than enough for a round trip.” She looks around and asks, “Handy not back yet?”

Nahlah waves it off as she chuckles. “Probably made the mistake of walking downwind of Gauge and passed out from the stench.”

Swift looks around then locks eyes with Gearing for a few moments. “Think I should go look for them?”

Gearing shrugs. “Up to you, but then they might come back while you’re out looking for them. Then we’d all just be waiting on you.” He shrugs again and shakes his head. “Sometimes the best course of action is taking no action…”

A moment later, and while Swift is still contemplating what to do, a set of rapidly approaching hoofbeats draws all of their attention. They all look over and see Gauge, running as fast as he can in their direction. He jumps, sailing over the railing rather gracefully, before landing and taking a couple more bounding jumps in their direction.

“Hide me, mmkay!” Gauge half yells half whimpers as he continues running, right into the wagon, and curls up into a corner behind Gearing’s supplies.

They all look back and forth, completely confused, between Gauge and where he’d come from.

Nahlah cracks a grin and asks, “What, you fart in one of the guard’s faces?”

“Not funny, mmkay?!” Gauge belts back before cowering in the wagon again.

A few moments later, Handy comes trotting up with a smirk on his face. He throws his forelegs over the railing and asks, “Gauge here?” They all nod. Causing him to start laughing as he backs up and then jumps the railing.

Swift slaps a hoof over her eyes and asks with annoyance dripping from her voice, “What’d he do this time…?”

“Fart in a guard’s face?” Nahlah offers.

Handy shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Then what?” Swift asks.

“He farted in two guard’s faces… at the same time.” He sits down and starts chuckling as he waves a hoof at the wagon. “I tell ya… that took some skill.” He nods hard. “Even more so to convince them not to string him up by his tail and use him as a pinata for it.”

A group of ponies come out of Crater Side carrying a variety of traveling bags. The chatter and size of the group isn’t anything noteworthy, especially given the ruckus that Gearing saw the night before. The packs they’re carrying likewise aren’t anything to draw attention to them.

The number of weapons between them? That’s a different story.

Gearing’s eyes jump to them as he starts going from pony to pony and sizing up the weapons they are carrying, at least the visible ones, and doing some quick mental math on how much he thinks they might be hiding judging on that. He walks around, stepping slowly closer to the railing, as he sees them turn their heads and stare at the group. One of the mares of the group starts running in their direction, and Gearing makes a sharp turn as he moves to intercept, and stay in between the unknown earth pony mare and Nahlah.

Just in case.

The mare hops up and puts a foreleg over the railing as she has a massive grin on her muzzle and waves with the other hoof high in the air. “Howdy y’all!” She points over at the skywagon and asks, “That your cart?”

Handy looks her over, and then at the approaching crowd behind her, as he says, “Yeah. Why?”

The olive mare takes off her hat and brushes her rust red mane back as she asks, “Well… shoot… Is she for hire?”

Handy looks her over for a moment, and then at the half dozen ponies behind her as he says with a wave of his hoof. “Maybe, what’d you have in mind?”

The olive mare crams her hat back on and grins. “Oh, me and mah friends need a lift up to Hoofington. Gotta score with our names on it just waitin’! Ow!” She looks to the side and scowls at the smaller orange mare next to her. “What didja do that fer?!”

Handy frowns and rubs a hoof through his mane. “We’re heading that way… but Hoofington’s pretty far out there.”

The olive mare turns back towards him and nods hard. “Oh dontcha worry none! We’ll pay! We need to get up there before someone beats us to it!” She flinches again and shoots a look at the orange mare next to her. “Wouldja quitit with that kickn’, sis?! I’ma tryn’ ta have a conversation here!”

Gearing walks closer to them, eyeing them suspiciously before saying, “I’m not a taxi service.”

Handy looks over at him and scowls. “It’s not your skywagon, Gearing!”

Gearing looks over at him and narrows his eyes. “Really Earth Pony? Who’s going to fly it? You? Go for it; let’s see you grow a pair.” He sits down and folds his forelegs in front of his chest as he stares at Handy. “Well… come on… get to sprouting.”

Handy’s eyes go wide and he looks around quickly then slowly starts looking over at Swift with a crooked smile. “Well...”

Gearing nods. “That’s damn right. I’m flying the bird, and the captain has the final say or the bird sits.”

Handy scowls at him and points a hoof at Swift. “You’re not the only flier!”

Gearing narrows his eyes and says with a hiss, “But I’m the only one that could get the thing working… and if you’re taking her, then you’re paying me for the work I’ve done, or I’ll just repo it all.”

Handy waves a hoof at Gearing. “What the hell?! We let you stay in our stable, and you’re going to treat us like this?!”

Gearing rolls his eyes. “You didn’t let me do shit. It’s not your stable. It’s Nettlekiss’s. And I’ve been working my ass off to get it back up to snuff. I’ve been earning my keep. Even doing more than asked.” He points a hoof at the skywagon. “And we ain’t in the stable. One thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other. I’m not one of your protectaponies to be ordered around and I’m damn sure not your slave. You want me to work, I expect fair compensation.” He waves a hoof at Handy dismissively as he says, while not even looking at him, “Or you can just go sit on Celestia’s horn and spin.”

Swift spins around and waves her forehooves. “Everypony just calm the fuck down!” She looks over at Handy. “Handy, he’s right. He did the work, and what the owner said was whoever got it off his building got to keep it, so it’s his skywagon. You should be grateful he’s willing to put in the wing work to get us where we need to go!”

She turns and looks at Gearing and points a hoof at him. “And you! Stop being such an egotistical asshole! You could be more diplomatic about things instead of intentionally trying to rile him up!”

Gearing frowns then points over to the crowd on the other side of the fence. “Questionable capacity aside… You saying you really think taking a half-dozen sized group of heavily armed ponies, that we don’t know, to a location we weren’t planning to go, for no other reason than a promise of a few caps, is a good fucking idea? Seriously?! For all you know they could just be wanting to get us up there so they can steal it from us.” He waves a hoof around. “Unless I’m seriously missing something… A functioning skywagon, is a bit of a rarity in Equestria these days…”

“His assessment appears accurate,” Sable chimes in as she walks up near Gearing.

The group at the fence start chattering and getting louder, drawing all of Swift’s group’s attentions. The bickering turns into a clamor until the olive mare yells, “Well they ain’t as it is. Ifn I tell’em, it might change their mind!”

The younger orange filly next to her ribs her again with an elbow. “And they might just fly off to get it for themselves!”

Gearing walks over to the fence and waves a hoof between all of them. “What the hell’s this all about?” He sits down and frowns. “Hoofington was a long, potentially dangerous, trip during the war. It’s even worse now, or so I’m told to believe.” He glances over at Handy and Swift for a moment before turning back to look the group over. “So whatever has your attention, you must think it’s worth it.” He looks them over as they look at each other and exchange motions and glances with each other, but offer no information to Gearing.

Gearing folds his forelegs in front of his chest as he glares at them. “Here, I’ll make it simple for you.” They all turn to look at him and, after he’s earned their full attention he says, “I’m no stranger to flying into a combat zone. But it always sucks. And I’m not going somewhere without knowing exactly where and why… so.” He closes his eyes and waves a hoof. “Either you tell me exactly what’s going on, or you might as well start hoofing it now.” He points at the Olive mare. “Because, until you give a damn compelling answer, and convince me otherwise, the answer’s a solid ‘no’.”

The olive mare turns to look at the others and flicks a hoof out towards Gearing. “See, y’all… We might as well, cuz we’re not gettn’ any closer now, and only stand ta gain.”

The orange filly looks off to the side and purses her lips to the side of her muzzle as she practically pouts, “They might take it and make us walk anyway.”

The olive mare ribs the orange one. “Not likely we’re gon’ make it ‘fore someone else does anyway.”

The orange filly lets out a sigh and hangs her head, before she limply waves towards Gearing and gives up arguing anymore.

The olive mare gives a snort at her then turns towards Gearing. “You been listen’ to the radio?”

“Not really, why?” Gearing asks as he raises an eyebrow.

Swift and Handy likewise shrug.

The olive mare takes off her hat and lays it across the railing as she grins. “Well, it’s all over the radio. See… up in Hoofington there’s this pony with a big ole price on’er head.”

Gearing tilts his head and asks with a smirk. “A bounty?”

She nods and one of the bucks behind her steps around and adds, “Biggest bounty there ever was… on anypony.”

Gearing rubs on his muzzle a bit as he thinks it over. He’d had passing thoughts on it, but didn’t really think he’d be able to fund himself that way. He chuckles and thanks his old friend for the economic advice. “How much is it?”

“Hundred thousand caps give or take,” chimes another mare from the group but not really visible.

Gearing stares ahead blank faced, but a gasp from behind him causes him to turn back and look at Nahlah. Her hair’s practically standing on end with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open limply. Gearing stares at her for a moment and asks, “I take it that’s a lot?” Nahlah nods slowly. “Yeah, sounded like a lot.”

The orange filly asks with her eyes narrowed. “Stable pony?”

Gearing grins at her and shrugs.

A couple of the group let out sighs of exasperation, and some combination of facehoofing and muttering, “Stable ponies don’t know nothin’.”

The orange filly grins and nods as she speaks slowly, as if talking to a foal, “Yeeeees… One hundred thousand is a big number… Lots of caps… Big money… Buy everyyyyyythiiiiing… That’s good… Riiiiiight?”

Gearing stares at her for a moment before rolling his eyes and looking at the olive mare. “What all do you know about this mark?” She tilts her head and raises an eyebrow and he quickly shakes his head. “The bounty. The pony with the price on their head? What do you know about it?”

They look among each other for a few moments and start muttering as they start offering out random information.

“Unicorn mare…

“Hundred thousand bounty… more if alive…”

“Hoofington area…”

“Last seen around Megamart…”

“That’s it?” Gearing asks with an unimpressed huff. “Not why? No reasons?”

“Think she stole something?” The orange mare says as she rubs on her chin with a hoof and thinks about it. “They wanted her PipBuck…”

Gearing looks down at her and smirks. “PipBuck?” He lifts his left foreleg and shows off his own.

They nod and the Olive mare partially closes an eye as she asks, “Yeah… what ‘bout it?”

Gearing looks at her and frowns. “None of this seems odd to you?” They all look at him like they aren’t following, so he continues, “An unheard of high bounty… with practically nonexistent reasons given for it? Yeah this has shady written all over it.” They all keep staring at him blank faced.

He rolls his eyes and asks as he passes his eyes over all of them, “Let me guess… you heard the massive number, and started having delusions of grandeur about what you were going to do with all that money, and didn’t put a lot of thought into the whys, hows, and shoulds?” They look at each other and frown as he seems to have hit the nail on the head but all of them are too prideful to admit it.

He taps on the fence in front of himself and looks them over. “Okay, time for Uncle Gearing to spread some knowledge. All of you line up here for a minute so you can see me and I can make sure you’re actually listening.” They snort in annoyance but actually comply.

He goes from one to the other, down the line, until he’s caught eye contact with each of the seven of them. “I’m telling you, without a shadow of a doubt, this is a death trap.”

“We can handle ourselves!” a buck on the far right objects.

“We can take’r’!” the orange filly says with a scowl.

“What’s some stable pony know?” a buck on the left says with a snort as he directs his gaze elsewhere.

Gearing looks over at him and says flatly, “I know, and can tell you, exactly how bounties are calculated and figured out.” This actually earns at least some token attention from the buck who looks Gearing over from the corner of his eye.

Gearing looks back and forth and starts tapping on the railing with a wing as he counts out. “There’s basic guidelines for choosing bounties. Typically they are based on: how long the fugitive has been causing problems, the frequency that they do what they do, the severity of the crimes, and, most importantly, how dangerous the individual is.”

He waves a wing in front of them as he says, “Which means the worse the pony, the higher the bounty… makes sense… right?” They all nod in agreement so Gearing continues as he raises a wingtip, “Which means the inverse is also true.”

The orange filly shakes her head and asks, “What’s that mean?”

Gearing looks at her and sighs. “It means an outrageously high bounty would typically mean the individual is outrageously dangerous.” He shrugs. “It’s the kind of thing that the police would actually be told not to interfere with and at least one of the ministries would get involved and take over the case.”

The orange filly grins and points at him as she cleverly highlights an apparent loophole. “You said ‘typically’ though! Which means there’s a chance that’s not the case!”

Gearing looks at her and frowns. “Yeah, and those cases would be even worse on whoever was stupid enough to try it.” That wiped the grin off her face, and, as he continues, it turns into a frown. “Look. If she just seemed to pop out of nowhere, and suddenly got this massive bounty on her head, there’s really, and I mean really, only a couple scenarios that could cause it, and none of it will end well for amateur bounty hunters.”

One of the bucks lets out a snort. “Pfft… I’ve taken down a few raiders, a bounty is a bounty.”

Gearing points at him with a wingtip while looking at him out of the corner of his eye. “And that attitude is why you’re heading for an early grave.” He looks them all over and says, “If the bounty is that high… either: They are dangerous enough to warrant it… The individual who put out the bounty never intended on paying in the first place, and just wanted to trick somepony stupid enough to do their dirty work for them, and are going to skip out and disappear… Or, they actually intended on double crossing by killing you and not only keeping their caps, but getting the PipBuck or whatever else they were wanting as ‘proof’ of the kill.” He gives a shrug and waves it all away. “Regardless of outcome, it’ll turn out badly for the bounty hunters.”

The group mutters among themselves and the orange mare points at Gearing as she says over the others talking, “Awww he doesn’t know what he’s talking about… They have the money. She just made them mad enough.”

“Let’s say they do have the money, and do actually plan on paying it out, though I have extreme doubts…” Gearing says softly as he looks at her. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, this whole thing is on the up and up… okay?”

She nods but then the smile fades off her face as she looks in his eyes and she says softly, “Okay…”

“Do you really think you’re going to live long enough to enjoy the money?” They all stare at him wide eyed and he continues, “You manage to claim the bounty, the largest bounty ever put on anypony.” He points over to the buck and nods. “That’s what you said right?” The buck shrugs then nods. “Okay… well… the bounty alone is spreading like wildfire. You collect? And everypony is going to know you. That kind of information… A bounty hunter, or group, that took down and claimed a record setting bounty is going to become famous overnight.” They start grinning, and he claps his hooves in front of himself as he looks at them. “And just like that, every sleazy murderer, thief, con artist, or would be bounty hunter that you beat to it would be after you for the prize money.”

Their grin instantly falls off all of their faces as their eyes bug out.

“Didn’t think about that, did you? That everypony will be after you. That you would be spending the rest of your life looking over your shoulder and never knowing who to trust…” He closes his eyes and raises his hooves up in the air in a shrug as he shakes his head. “And you call me naive? Yesh…”

He lets out a sigh and looks them over. “Even if you win you lose…” He waves the whole thing away and says softly, “Any real professional worth his salt would look at the situation, and steer the hell away from it… because, best case scenario… Is it being a complete waste of time, quickly falling into torment and a horribly violent end beyond that.”

One of the bucks, a gray individual looking more like a young colt, wearing a green bandana tied around his neck, looks at the others, then back at Gearing and asks, “Sooo… you going to take us, or not?” A couple of the others, including both the olive and orange mares, look at him like he’s an idiot.

Gearing shakes his head. “Congratulations… you’ve convinced me…” The gray buck grins widely and his eyes go wide. But he practically deflates as Gearing continues, “To stay the hell away from there. Nope. Not doing it. Don’t care how much you offer me.” He gets up and starts walking back to the skywagon. “Not even if you offered me the entire bounty.”

The gray buck snorts. “So you going to fly up there and get it yourself now?”

Gearing turns around and rolls his eyes. “What did I just tell you? It’s suicide. I’m going to steer clear of the entire area if I can help it.” He waves it away. “I want no part of that shit.”

The gray buck nickers and looks at the others as he points a hoof at Gearing. “He’s lying… I knew we shouldn’t have told him anything…”

Gearing looks at him for a moment, then sits down and folds his forelegs. “Why the hell would I lie about it?”

The buck waves a hoof at him and rolls his eyes. “So we wouldn’t find out you’re screwing us, obviously.”

Gearing stares at him for a moment, then looks back and forth between the others. “Really? And why the hell would I give a shit if you knew?” They all turn to look at him and Gearing waves at the gray buck with one hoof limply. “You are nopony to me. I don’t know you. I don’t owe you a damn thing. And if I was going to go, there’s not a damn thing you could do to stop me.” He shrugs. “I would have already hightailed it out of here if that were the case, skywagon be damned.” He points at the gray buck with a hoof, and then slowly directs it to wave over the whole group. “I’m not kidding. This so called ‘bounty’ is going to get a lot of ponies killed… stay away from it.”

The buck snorts and waves a hoof at him. “Yeah, right. I bet your going to Megamart though!”

Gearing shrugs. “Eventually.”

The buck’s hoof slowly dips as he didn’t expect such a blunt answer.

Gearing gets up and starts back towards the skywagon. “I have a tournament to get to. And to do some shopping… Hopefully this whole ‘bounty’ nonsense is over by time I make it to Megamart.” He makes air quotations with his wingtips as he mutters, “Otherwise the whole area will probably be a war zone with trigger happy amateurs.”

The buck looks over at the olive mare and scowls. “He’s fucking us over here…”

Gearing looks over his shoulder at him and sighs. “Actually, I’m pretty sure I’m saving your lives… time will tell which of us were right.”

The olive mare rubs her mane after taking off her hat. “Well… what should we do now?”

Gearing shrugs and waves at her with a hoof. “There’s seven of you. Work together… If you were willing to travel that far together, with a high probability of death, in order to try and make a living… maybe you could do some good locally.” He gives them a wide grin. “I’ve heard from reliable sources that raider dens are great for filling the saddle bags… So if you’re looking for a scrap to make some money… why not help your fellow ponies out and make the area safer in the process?” He laughs and waves it away. “I’d normally suggest something like picking up a trade, do some farming, maybe even learn some medicine... but I doubt you’d listen to me about that either…”

The group of would be bounty hunters turn around and go back into Crater Side as they continue to mutter and talk among themselves.

Sable walks over and asks as she watches them dejectedly head inside. “My darling Gearing… is this a case of you being worried they wouldn’t be able to handle it, and wanting to take care of it yourself? Or were you really intending on leaving such a dangerous individual on the loose?”

Gearing sits down by the harness connectors for the Skywagon and shakes his head. “I wasn’t lying to them. The whole thing stinks of some kind of setup.” He looks at her and sees the concern. “But, if there really is some psycho running around that’s that dangerous… I’ll find them.”

Swift rolls her eyes. “So you really are going to take the bounty for yourself?”

Gearing looks at her and pulls his head back before practically spitting at her. “Heeellllll no! I’m trying to be less noticeable, not have every hoof, wing, and gun this side of Roam after me. Fuck that noise.” He waves it off and starts strapping in. “Assuming everything was right, I’d just make them disappear.”

Gauge pops out of the back and peeks over the lip at him as he asks softly, “How’d you do that, mmkay?”

Gearing shrugs as he doesn’t even look back at him, “Incineration, disintegration, vat of acid, or just the tried and true heavy weight and trip to the bottom of the ocean…” He looks up and sees the wide eyed stares pointed at him and he says softly, “What…? That way they’d be gone but no one could claim the bounty… save a lot of hassle.” He frowns as he looks off to the side and rubs his chin with a hoof as he mutters, “Though it begs the question, how anyone could afford such a thing in the first place…”

“Perhaps it is a collection of ponies that have put out the reward, and not an individual?” Sable offers.

Gearing frowns as he looks over at her. “A group of ponies with a lot of resources? That just makes it sound even worse…” He shakes his head. “Well, as much as I’d like to know more about what we’re flying into, let’s get going.” He looks over at Swift. “You got that nav point for me?”

Swift nods and taps out on her PipBuck. “Sure, here ya go. From what I was told, it’s in Freight Cars territory, but as far as gangs go, they’re one of the more decent variety. Not like raiders. They just have a protection and extortion racket going on, and very aggressively defend their territory.” She shrugs. “But they’re basically a gang of wannabes that hope to get into the Reapers eventually, so they do their best to stay on the Reapers good side and won’t start anything while they are there and while the Gauntlet is going on.”

Gearing looks up from his PipBuck as he’s plotting out a flight path to their destination. “Gauntlet? What’s that?”

“Basically their version of The Crater tourney,” Handy offers as he’s walking towards the skywagon.

Gearing nods and closes out his PipBuck as he says, “Okay, well, if we’re all ready to go, let’s get out of here.”

As they all start piling into the skywagon, Nahlah looks over at Gearing and asks, “Is this open top design really that safe?”

Gearing shrugs. “Safe enough. It’s not meant for combat maneuvers. Just to carry ponies and goods from point ‘A’ to ‘B’. If you’re irresponsible enough to do a loop-the-loop in it, yeah, things might fall out. But… you wouldn’t do that with a normal wagon either… sooo.”

Nahlah looks back and forth then shrugs and grins widely. “Well, you only live once, right?” She hops in then takes up position at the front with her forepaws looped over the leading edge of the wagon as she grins. “I’ve never flown before, but I’ll trust ya!”

Gearing grins at her. “Yeah, but you’re still digging your claws into the frame and I haven’t even taken off yet…”

Nahlah looks down at the fierce grip her paws are giving to the edge then back up at him with a shrug. “Can never be too prepared, you know.”

Gearing shakes his head and laughs as he takes off. “Alright everyone, off we go!”

They zip around in a growing circle as Gearing gains a bit of altitude with the wagon before turning off towards their first stop.

Thanks to whatever false preconceptions about the magics of pegasi flight, the trip apparently takes longer than expected. At least for a couple members of the party. In rather short order, the two earth ponies decide it’s better to not look out the windows at the ground below, and focus on other things. Namely talking about what they are going to do once they are back at the stable. And on the ground. Safely.

Swift is rather amused by it and spends her time with Handy, reassuring him that, in case of terminal failure, she can just carry him herself.

This doesn’t help Gauge’s mood at all as no one responds to his, “What about me?” question.

Nahlah and Sable, however, seem to maintain their respective level of enthusiasm the whole way. Sable looks around periodically, and down towards the ground, taking in the topography and generally trying to stay aware of their environment. Focusing on keeping a look out for potential threats. When she isn’t admiring their pilot, that is.

Nahlah partially leans forward, with her head out, and eyes closed, feeling the wind blow through her fur as they continue along their path. She taps excitedly on the front frame as she yells out, “Flying is amazing! I’m so jealous!”

Gearing smirks and looks back towards her as he nods. “Can’t say I disagree! Definitely has a few perks to it!” Then goes back to looking out where he’s going

Nahlah leans on the wagon and rocks her chin back and forth on the railing as she looks around and simply enjoys the experience. “The ability to just take off and go wherever you want, when you want… Yeah… That’s the life for me…” She turns her head and looks down as the ground seems to start getting even smaller and further away.

Handy runs up between Nahlah and Sable and yells at Gearing, “Hey! Are you taking us even higher?!”

Gearing rolls his eyes and waves a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, there’s an industrial complex coming up with some tall buildings. I don’t like the look of them. But, don’t worry, extra height isn’t going to make you spontaneously fall out.”

Handy leans out, over Nahlah, and looks around as he screams, “You’re going too high!”

Gearing frowns and dares a look back as he yells back, “It’ll be fine!”

Handy shakes his head and points up. “No! The lightning net! You go too high and it’ll fry us!”

Gearing looks around and up and manages a shrug. “I’ve been looking and I don’t see anything! They’d have to have some kind of focus, like a rod or something. It won’t just shoot out of the clouds!”

Handy starts pointing down repeatedly and forcefully. “Down! Take us down!”

Gearing shakes his head and points off towards the industrial complex they are coming up on. “If there’s anyone in those buildings they could shoot us down! I’d prefer not to get some flak shoved up my tail pipe!”

“Do it!” Handy screams as his face takes on a twitchy near manic look.

Gearing shakes his head. “The hell is wrong with you?! You that interested in getting shot up? We kinda stick out! You don’t fly closer to guns!”

“Can’t you two get along for five fucking minutes!?” Swift yells as she gets next to Handy, and Nahlah curls around and gets out of the way of the argument. “What’s the big deal?!”

Handy points up as he looks at her. “We’re getting too close to the cloud ceiling. They’re going to blast us out of the air!”

Gearing shakes his head and yells back, “No they aren’t! They would have already fired if that’s the case. If they even could. I’m not going any higher!”

“Let me the hell off then! If you’re going to commit suicide, fine, but you’re not taking me and my wife with you!” Handy screams as he waves a hoof at Gearing.

Gearing rubs his helmeted head in frustration. “You gotta be fucking kidding me!”

Swift yells over, “Let’s just go ahead and head down, we’ll talk about it on ground level.”

Gearing looks back at her and starts adjusting to cut altitude as he screams back, “I never would have agreed to this shit if I knew he was going to be such an ass about it!” He starts curving and diving as he grumbles to himself. “Fucking leggers…”

As they are coming down, and before they even get to roof level, Sable yells out, “Contacts, Nine O’clock low! They’re firing!”

Gearing looks over and sees a variety of muzzle flashes, and starts zipping and cutting more altitude to avoid the incoming fire. He turns more as he screams, “This is why I don’t like hauling near the ground! There’s not as much room to maneuver! Fucking idiots!”

Gearing starts whipping around various crumbled buildings, and getting forced back towards the industrial complexes by practical walls of lead being slug up at them by various fully automatic weapons.

A line of holes zips through the middle of the wagon, bisecting it with nearly a dozen testaments to the bullets that tore through the entirely unarmored civilian skywagon.

Nahlah screams and rolls over as a couple rounds had hit her around her left haunch and side of the abdomen.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Gearing screams as he turns and maneuvers around one burst of automatic fire after another. Always being forced more towards the industrial complex, and meeting even more lead each time he tried to break away to the outskirts. Doing so simply provided them a bigger broadsided target to shoot at.

Swift pulls out a healing potion and beings feeding it to Nahlah as Handy screams out, “Whose dumbass idea was this anyway?!”

Gearing only glances back enough to shoot him a scowl and scream, “Yours!”

Gearing zips his eyes around and sees the ambush that they are trying to set up near one of the street ways they are trying to force him through. He curses and keeps looking around, and sees something that he thinks might just work. “Sable! Up front, weapons free! I’m going to need some of this debris out of the way!”

Sable turns from taking pot shots at various muzzle flashes they are passing to take position behind him at the front of the wagon. Gearing takes the wagon in a corkscrew trajectory, getting even lower and on the far left side of the street, before coming back up and over, curving around and zipping towards an area that has a broken and collapsed section of wall and roof.

One of the attackers had been in the gap, hugging a bare i-beam, and had a rather surprised look on her face as Gearing suddenly turned and dove right towards her. She wasn’t expecting it, and had her weapon pointed in a way to shoot at them as they were passing. She brings her weapon around, and starts shooting with the automatic before the barrel is even pointed in their direction. But the gun goes silent as she glows and gets reduced to a pile of fluttering pink and red ash.

Gearing dips down again, going through the gap between the i-beam the ambusher was using, and the top of the collapsed wall. But the gap is barely broad enough for the wagon to get through and a piece of steel juts out like a dragon’s claw and rips a gash down the entire length of the right side.

Inside is a giant warehouse that was used to manufacture some sort of mechanical equipment. Everywhere earth pony ingenuity is on full display with one gadget or another. But all of it is in disrepair and falling apart. Literally. Many pieces of chains, framework, and cables hang down from various points of contact along the entire length.

“I need that shit cleared or this trip is going to end pretty damn quick!” Gearing yells as he looks at the gauntlet in front of them fast approaching.

Pinpoint magical bursts shoot over his head, hitting and cutting various lines in the debris in front of them. The debris starts raining down to the ground leaving a mostly clear path for Gearing to get through. Even when there are cables that he ends up bashing into, they are thankfully not very long, with nothing on the end, and do little more than flog both him and the skywagon. But it still hurts as he lets out several grunts with a variety of the reverse swings.

Gearing points off near the end and screams. “Up high! That beam’s not going to let us through!”

Sable locks on and fires, hitting the riveted joining plates on one side, causing the support to collapse and the large beam to drop down. Gravity takes over and makes it swing down and away from their path as the remaining support plate acts as a hinge for it to pivot on.

Gearing lets out a whoop and waves a hoof in the air. “That’s my mare!” He zips around the remaining debris, and heads for the gap as quickly as he can before the rest falls on them.

However, the steel beam didn’t, as Sable intended, fall down the rest of the way after making a swing. Instead, the support plate proves it must have been of earth pony manufacture, as it stubbornly keeps its grip on both the upper supports and the large steel beam itself. As they are about to pass, the beam uses all of the momentum it gained from swinging away with the fall, and starts swinging back towards them and the gap.

Sable’s laser refocuses, and she starts firing at the support plate as she whips out her cables and prepares to push the beam out of the way. As she cuts through the connecting point the heavy support beam does start falling to the ground mid swing, but it’s still not going to be enough to stop the incoming collision

As Sables cables are bundling up to combine their strength and try to at least cushion the blow, Swift appears near the beam with a snap of her wings.

All four of Swifts hooves connect with the beam, as she quad bucks the top of it back and sideways away from the skywagon, she follows up with a cyclonic spin and delivers a full swung powerhoof strike to the side, sending sparks out and causing it to jerk more to the side.

Sable follows suit, swinging her combined cables like a baton, and following up Swift’s strikes with her own. Slowly the thing falls enough, by directing it to the side, to allow gravity to pull it harmlessly to the ground and out of a collision path.

Sable and Swift begin clearing the debris in front of the skywagon as Gearing makes for an opening on the far side of the manufacturing floor. With Sable cutting and burning things out of the way while Swift, unhindered by having to pull a skywagon, snaps around in front of Gearing and likewise bats away different obstacles.

As Gearing is approaching the large hole on the other side of the building, Swift hovers there for a moment and screams at him, “It’s clear! Go!”

And Gearing more than happily obliges.

But, as he’s exiting at full speed, he sees there’s not a whole lot of room to move, and has to make a rather sharp turn upwards to avoid hitting the next building. So he arcs up, just like he had done at Megamac.

However, he didn’t have a large group of maniacs hunting and shooting at him in Megamac.

As he’s cresting the lip of the next building, he catches sight of a trio of individuals. All three heavily armed with automatic weapons. One of which is sporting a minigun. He’s close enough to them, as he comes over the edge, that he can see the mad glint in their eyes. The twitchiness. The partial gloss to their eyes. He knows that look well enough and it fills him with dread.

They’re on a massive amount of drugs.

As they are coming over, and before the skywagon’s even completely come up, they open fire on the skywagon and Gearing. The skywagon starts getting shredded, and Gearing likewise catches many bullets along his entire length, as he seems to have earned the unrelenting attention of the minigun. As the wagon levels out some, one of the attacking mares turns into a sparkling pink ash pile. The buck with the minigun is so focused on Gearing, that he doesn’t notice the sky blue blur that comes up from the side and clocks him with a power hoof to the head that sends him skidding over and in front of the other mare firing at the sky wagon.

The last attacker has just enough time to look over at Swift, before Swift quad bucks her right off of the eight story building. Powerhoof included.

Gearing screams out, “Everypony out! Get out!”

Handy, favoring an injured left foreleg where a few rounds had tore through his armor, screams back, “Get to the ground first!”

Gearing sweeps his head from his left, around in front of himself, then looking at his right. Finally ending with himself looking back into the skywagon.

And time practically stops.

There are functions of PipBucks in general that Gearing is not a fan of. He has a strong distrust of the E.F.S. system, as it can be fooled and potentially lead one into a false sense of security. Not to mention its habit of cluttering up one’s eyesight. And the S.A.T.S., Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, is its own monster. Limited range, thus being completely useless for when you want to reach out and touch somepony with a high caliber round from the safety of a tower a few blocks away. Let alone further. Melee is also problematic, as it has the nasty habit of locking you into the selections. Even if, say, somepony with a shotgun comes through the door while you are busy beating their friend into the floorboards. Would be a really nice idea to be able to stop and take care of the new threat. But, S.A.T.S. won’t let you cancel mid attack. So S.AT.S. is pretty much useless in his opinion. Pretty much, but not entirely. Especially with him using it in ways he’s pretty positive they never intended.

Like now.

Gearing is known as a quick thinker both professionally and in his personal life. It’s no surprise to anypony that he’s light on his hooves when it comes to rapid thought. What would be a surprise to most would be the knowledge that, he cheats.

Like now.

He’s not using the spell to target anypony in particular. He can’t see any of the hostiles at the moment. But, he knows they are there. What S.A.T.S. is giving him is something truly precious, and when it counts most. Time.

Time to figure out what needs to happen. Time to figure out what he should be doing. Unlike some preconceptions of the spell, it doesn’t truly freeze time. That could cause all kinds of problems. Instead it hyper activates the user’s own perceptions. Letting them think quicker. React faster. Plan things out. Make decisions.

And he’s got one hell of one to make at the moment.

His quick turn of his head before activating the spell was to make sure what was around. He knows the building is longer than it is wide. That despite it being somewhere between six and eight stories, there’s an even taller building across the road straight ahead. He has more than enough time to avoid the building. That’s not the problem.

The problem is: He needs everypony out of the wagon. And now. But with typical Handy fashion he doesn’t want to do anything he’s told. And wants to have a committee about everything, regardless of the reasoning or need for expediency. It doesn’t matter. If it’s not one of his ideas, he’s against it until it’s proven beyond a doubt to be the right course of action. With few exceptions.

With Gearing’s head turned to look at the skywagon, he can see the damage unleashed on it, and its occupants, quite spectacularly. The wagon’s shredded, and barely staying together. The one gash along the entire right side where that steel beam ripped into it like a can of cram is a real beaut. The general sieve appearance from the many bullets that have punctured and passed through it provides airflow where nopony asked for it. And all of the red from the variety of injuries sustained by the occupants has given the interior a new speckled paint job.

And Sable. Staring right at him as she seems to be trying to figure something out about him. She probably knows what he has done, but not why, and is probably trying to sort it out he guesses.

He mentally curses, Fucking Handy, we wouldn’t have gotten shot if we stayed in the air.

Stupidity is terminal and gets ponies killed, the little blue pegasus in his head says with a harrumph as it flops down and glares in Handy’s general direction.

Gearing’s focus takes in Sable’s form. Several bullets have impacted along her modified armor, and a few that had managed to pierce through have caused noticeable damage. Her right foreleg is heavily damaged as it’d taken hits from some of the higher caliber rounds being thrown at them.

Stupidity kills, the little blue pegasus snorts again.

Not my Sable, Gearing mentally challenges.

Not my Sable, the little blue pegasus agrees.

And S.A.T.S. cycles, bringing him back to reality and normal time while beginning its charging mode to prepare for the next time he needs it.

The moment the spell drops he locks eyes with Sable and screams, “Sable! Evaaacuuaaaaate!”

Sable spins around as she replies, “Confirmed!” and barrels towards the back of the wagon. As she reaches the back hatch, and throws the tailgate down, causing the supplies to begin pouring out, Gearing begins rotating his flight pattern as he flies straight ahead.

“Whoa! What?! You fucking bastard!” Handy screams as Gearing inverts the wagon, and dumps all of them, contents and all, along the roof as he continues down the length of the rooftop. He keeps picking up speed, not even looking back, as he flies as fast as he can for the other side of the building.

Supplies, bags, and luggage go scattering along the roof’s entire length, as Sable is the first to impact on the concrete roof surface. She had jumped, but her chassis isn’t entirely designed for this sort of maneuver, and her right foreleg is highly damaged. The foreleg collapsed under the pressure, buckling and causing her to fall down and start rolling and tumbling along the roof’s surface awkwardly as sparks shoot out in a variety of directions.

Gauge was the second one out, practically getting knocked out as Sable made good on her escape out of the back. He bounces and gets even more bloody as he ends up with a horrible case of road rash as he skids across the rooftop with Sable.

Nahlah was next out, but went sideways out of the wagon as Gearing began his inversion maneuver. She tumbled out and, despite having claws to help slow her down, slid all the way over to the edge, and fell off the left side of the building.

Swift had started catching up to the skywagon after dealing with the two shooters, and before she could say anything or grab Handy, who was still holding on to the front of the wagon, Nahlah skidded across the rooftop and over the edge while clawing for dear life. She quickly changed direction, zipping over the edge after Nahlah to try and catch her before she hits the jagged debris that’s filling up most of the alleyway on this side of the building eight stories down.

Handy stayed on the longest, by stubbornly holding on even as the wagon went entirely upside down. As it’s coming back up the other side, however, he loses his grip and likewise goes skidding and bouncing across the roof’s rough surface. At an angle away from the wagon. He tries kicking and grabbing at anything to slow his speed, but he too goes shooting off the roof at a practical forty-five degree angle on the side of the building opposite Nahlah. Slamming into the brick wall of the next building across the alleyway, and falling down a story to come to a painful greeting with the fire escape. As he’s rolling over and holding his road-rashed cheek he looks up at the sky and begins a tirade that starts with, “Fucking machines,” and quickly becomes unintelligible.

Gearing, not slowing down one iota, barrels ahead at full speed, while the others continue to skitter and fall along their own trajectories. While they are trying to slow down and come to a halt. He continues picking up speed. He reaches down for his quick release and begins fiddling with it.

But is still attached when he crashes through the large glass window that must have provided the meeting room it is part of an exquisite view back in its hay day. The wagon, likewise, takes full advantage of Gearing’s efforts, and inertia, to bury itself far into the meeting room with Gearing.

On the roof across from the office building, Gauge pulls himself up and looks around in a panic. He runs over to Sable and asks as he looks around. “You okay? You have guns, right, mmkay?”

Sable slowly picks herself up, but her legs have been knocked around and battered. Her right foreleg has completely folded and is completely useless in its current mangled and sparking form. She looks around and takes note of the barrel of the assault rifle on her battle saddle being bent awkwardly at her side. But the shotgun on the other side seems to have faired the fall better. She quickly pops out, and then returns, her shoulder laser before nodding. “I still have weaponry, Subject Gauge.” She looks around then watches as the skywagon plows head long into the building across the street. Burying itself so far into it that it’s barely visible from her current location.

Gauge’s eyes go wide as he looks at it sideways. He turns back to look at Sable and waves a hoof as he gives her a nervous grin. “I’m sure he’s okay, mmkay?”

A sound like a monstrous inhale greets their ears, and a moment later a massive explosion rocks out from the building across the street as the wagon explodes in spectacular fashion. The shockwave causes Gauge to fall over sideways and tumble a bit as the concussion wave hits him.

Sable lowers herself, but keeps her footing as the wave passes them over. She straightens up to take in the view of the building across the street. And instantly sits down hard onto her rear.

From the point of impact, in a rough circle, everything seems destroyed up and down a whole floor. The wagon, what’s left of it, sits on the next floor down in a barely recognizable twisted heap. Beyond that, nothing else is really recognizable, as the whole segment has been either blasted away or collapsed in on itself into a rather homogeneous looking debris.

Three floors worth of destruction with a single explosion.

As pieces of various, unidentifiably sourced, debris begins raining down on them, Sable whimpers out, “G- Gearing…?”

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